Survey of existing and emerging power conversion technologies relevant to a self-powered furnace
Furnaces for residential space heating consume about 2.5% of all annual primary energy consumed in the US. Conventional furnaces utilize electricity from the electric grid to power blowers and other components. A self-powered furnace would utilize fuel energy to generate its own power, while rejecting the waste heat from the power cycle to provide additional useful building heating. Assuming the total energy use remains the same as for a conventional furnace, there are advantages in primary energy efficiency and operating cost. With no electrical connection to the grid, the self-powered furnace also improves resiliency to electric grid outages and reduces demand on the grid, which can be important during periods of peak heating. In addition, when unit size and venting type are maintained, a drop-in replacement with no incremental installation cost and increased potential for market adoption is achieved. In this work, the power generation requirements for such a drop-in-ready, self-powered furnace are analyzed, and available power generation technologies are surveyed.